Ms LAWRIE - 2013-05-14
Madam Speaker, I am glad the Chief Minister has recognised we will be discussing and asking questions about the budget today, given that dorothy dixer.
Your Education budget fact sheet starts by saying Budget 2013-14 invests in education; however, the budget papers show you are slashing the Education budget ...
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I missed who the question was to.
Madam SPEAKER: The Chief Minister.
Ms LAWRIE: You have put up inflation by 3.9%. To cope with your increases in inflation, the Education budget would need to increase by $30m. However, page 189 of Budget Paper No 3 shows you are ripping nearly $17m out of the Education budget. That is $47m less, in real terms, for Education in your budget. Why are you stripping out investment in education when you are pretending in your fact sheet that you are increasing education?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, once again the Opposition Leader is leading with her chin talking about a 3.9% increase in inflation. I am sure you forecasted last time that it would be 4.2%. We brought inflation back by 0.3%. Well done! You are laying the groundwork once again …
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! That was the CLP mini-budget. It was running at 2.1% on the radar.
Madam SPEAKER: It is not a point of order, please be seated. Chief Minister.
Mr GILES: Thank you, Madam Speaker. The Northern Territory continues to invest more in education than any other jurisdiction. I anticipate there will be a question about the National Education Reform Agreement, or Gonski review, at some point.
The average cost per student spent in the Northern Territory based on the 2010 My School data is $15 893 per student. Nationally, the average is $9782. That is some $6000 more per student we spend in the Northern Territory.
To pre-empt a possible question that may come later, I will go to some of the Gonski conversation. The Gonski review recommended assessing the average cost of high performing schools to determine …
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Relevance, 113. The question did not go to Gonski at all. It went to the reduction in your budget of $17m, which is a reduction of $47m in real terms because of the inflation running under you at 3.9%: your budgets, your cuts, nothing to do with Gonski. Why are you ripping funding out of education?
Mr GILES: I am talking exactly about education and I will go back to that point about us spending $15 893 on average per student. The reform proposed under what was the Gonski review, but Gonski has walked away and now it is the National Education Reform Agreement …
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Relevance, 113. Answer the question! There was nothing about Gonski or the National Education Reform Agreement. This is about the Territory budget.
Madam SPEAKER: Opposition Leader, the Chief Minister is answering the question in a way that I believe is appropriate. He is talking about education in regard to your question. Chief Minister, you have the call.
Mr GILES: Where we have an average spend of $15 893, the proposal under the Gonski, or NERA, idea by the federal government is for us to reduce the new student amount to $9271 from 2014. The federal government wants us to reduce our spending on education. They also want a reduction on remote schools. We will not complete cutting it to underfund. That is what Gonski and NERA are proposing.
We continue to fund more than any other jurisdiction per student. You talk about education when you had the worst NAPLAN results in the country. You should be ashamed. You should hide your head for talking about this. Educational statistics - talk about educational outcomes. In the 2012 NAPLAN figures, 28% of Indigenous Year 5 students reached the national benchmark for reading.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! How on earth do you expect NAPLAN to improve when you are ripping funding out of education?
Madam SPEAKER: Please be seated. That is not a point of order! Chief Minister, you have the call.
Mr GILES: Only 21% of Indigenous kids in the Northern Territory met the national benchmark for Year 9 writing, including urban and remote?
You have no credit talking about education and education budgets when you could not deliver the outcomes needed for kids in the Northern Territory.
Your Education budget fact sheet starts by saying Budget 2013-14 invests in education; however, the budget papers show you are slashing the Education budget ...
Mr ELFERINK: A point of order, Madam Speaker! I missed who the question was to.
Madam SPEAKER: The Chief Minister.
Ms LAWRIE: You have put up inflation by 3.9%. To cope with your increases in inflation, the Education budget would need to increase by $30m. However, page 189 of Budget Paper No 3 shows you are ripping nearly $17m out of the Education budget. That is $47m less, in real terms, for Education in your budget. Why are you stripping out investment in education when you are pretending in your fact sheet that you are increasing education?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, once again the Opposition Leader is leading with her chin talking about a 3.9% increase in inflation. I am sure you forecasted last time that it would be 4.2%. We brought inflation back by 0.3%. Well done! You are laying the groundwork once again …
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! That was the CLP mini-budget. It was running at 2.1% on the radar.
Madam SPEAKER: It is not a point of order, please be seated. Chief Minister.
Mr GILES: Thank you, Madam Speaker. The Northern Territory continues to invest more in education than any other jurisdiction. I anticipate there will be a question about the National Education Reform Agreement, or Gonski review, at some point.
The average cost per student spent in the Northern Territory based on the 2010 My School data is $15 893 per student. Nationally, the average is $9782. That is some $6000 more per student we spend in the Northern Territory.
To pre-empt a possible question that may come later, I will go to some of the Gonski conversation. The Gonski review recommended assessing the average cost of high performing schools to determine …
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Relevance, 113. The question did not go to Gonski at all. It went to the reduction in your budget of $17m, which is a reduction of $47m in real terms because of the inflation running under you at 3.9%: your budgets, your cuts, nothing to do with Gonski. Why are you ripping funding out of education?
Mr GILES: I am talking exactly about education and I will go back to that point about us spending $15 893 on average per student. The reform proposed under what was the Gonski review, but Gonski has walked away and now it is the National Education Reform Agreement …
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Relevance, 113. Answer the question! There was nothing about Gonski or the National Education Reform Agreement. This is about the Territory budget.
Madam SPEAKER: Opposition Leader, the Chief Minister is answering the question in a way that I believe is appropriate. He is talking about education in regard to your question. Chief Minister, you have the call.
Mr GILES: Where we have an average spend of $15 893, the proposal under the Gonski, or NERA, idea by the federal government is for us to reduce the new student amount to $9271 from 2014. The federal government wants us to reduce our spending on education. They also want a reduction on remote schools. We will not complete cutting it to underfund. That is what Gonski and NERA are proposing.
We continue to fund more than any other jurisdiction per student. You talk about education when you had the worst NAPLAN results in the country. You should be ashamed. You should hide your head for talking about this. Educational statistics - talk about educational outcomes. In the 2012 NAPLAN figures, 28% of Indigenous Year 5 students reached the national benchmark for reading.
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! How on earth do you expect NAPLAN to improve when you are ripping funding out of education?
Madam SPEAKER: Please be seated. That is not a point of order! Chief Minister, you have the call.
Mr GILES: Only 21% of Indigenous kids in the Northern Territory met the national benchmark for Year 9 writing, including urban and remote?
You have no credit talking about education and education budgets when you could not deliver the outcomes needed for kids in the Northern Territory.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016